Moving away from MT4

Ok, so I am looking to move away from my MT4 broker and move to a broker with a proprietary app. In this case i am considering Saxobank.

My question revolves around using their app for order entry and MT4 for charting. i believe numerous people here use Oanda and MT4 in the same setup. How difficult is it to use both apps at one time.

Are there any suggestions that you may have regarding setup and your experience etc.

thanks.

I've found I can have two platforms going but that's it, nothing else. I'm considering getting a new CPU to handle some of the load. My 7 yr old Dell just isn't up to the task anymore.

Saxobank is a good company. I have traded with them off and on for a while when I was trading other peoples accounts. I strongly suggest spending a weeks or so with their platform just to get used to it. Took me a while to figure everything out.

I run mt4 for charting (usually two different feeds in case one goes out) and 3 different brokerage accounts all open at the same time running the same cpu with no issues with regards to slowing down the cpu enough to notice. Mt4 tends to lag a bit behind 2 of my accounts not enough to be an issue but noticeable nonetheless. I am running all of it on a Dell XPS 400 with 4 monitors.

I have noticed that as well.

Hi flyer415,
Aside from the general mt4 issues, can you elaborate on your own reasons for the move?
Have you taken a decision already?
Cheers,

As it is I ended up going with Interactive Brokers and I will be using Ninjatrader.

I still have a demo MT4 as well as a live MT4 account.


When I looked at all the brokers and listed the criteria that were really important to me then it typically came up with a broker that was not MT4. The criteria included items such as CAD deposit, security of funds, non dealing desk, tight spreads, financial size of broker and broker liquidity pool as well as overall broker reputation. I have been used to MT4 for several years and it was a tough decision to move away from it.

I like how easy MT4 is to work with but not really keen on most brokers. IB seemed to take care of most of my issues and Ninjatrader seems like a great app although I am still learning it.

I do not use EAs for trade entry although I do use an EA for trade management.

As my analysis will still be done on MT4 I only needed an app that would allow for easy entry and then easy trade management. Most of the currenex based brokers and other java apps left a lot to be desired but Ninjatrader with its ATM concept seems to have a solid trade management as well as trade entry module.

My concern was with charting on one app (MT4) and entering/managing on another but I now believe that my fear was overblown.

Just be sure you understand the hidden costs in re-balancing with IB, with IB you have to manually re-balance your account into you base currency before you withdraw. If you don't have enough in a certain currency this may mean you will get IDEAL rates as opposed to IDEAL-PRO. I strongly suggest you look at this on their demo platform before going live.

I can't say that i understood that.

My account is denominated in CAD. So are you saying that anytime that I wish to withdraw funds from IB then they will do a conversion and that it is not really denominated in CAD.

Or are you speaking about an actual trade concept.

Thanks.

Every currency you buy or sell will have to be converted, at some point, back into CAD.
It's difficult to explain, probably best just to trade though their demo for a couple of days, you'll see what I mean.

Some people are talking about it here.
http://www.trade2win.com/boards/fore...-platform.html

But that is no different then a USD based account trading EURJPY or some other cross that is not USD based.

Interesting. I’m doing a similar research now. My 2Cs re IB (had a live account with them until recently) - the platform is very strong and surely very comprehensive, but the one thing that drove me away was customer service. One can easily wait 15 minutes for a chat service (don’t even think about a live agent unless it’s emergency). I don’t know about CAD-dominated accounts but started to gravitate towards Dukascopy (still on the theoretical level).
Re moving from Mt4 (e.g. to Ninjatrader) – I’m concerned if there is a similar thriving development community around the platform.

Yes, I have also been looking at Dukas. I am waiting for them to get their banking license first. As for the development community for ninjatrader, I don't believe that it is as robust as MT4 but it is more then sufficient.

Why is banking license an issue?

Well they have to get a banking license to continue to be a forex broker in Switzerland. They have not yet fulfilled the requirements.

So if I open an account there now and they do not obtain a license then i have to either close my account with them because they can no longer be a broker or I have to close my account with them because the Swiss regulators found an issue with them and would not issue a license. Either way I would close my account.

So I will wait and see if they get approved for a license. The license is a requirement by the Swiss government.

Broker ac-markets is also waiting to get the banking license is Switzerland, I heard they were first in line to get it in February